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Email Marketing Part 2: Getting People Engaged

So you’ve read all about how to build the perfect email — now the next step is to work out what to put in it. It goes without saying that the content of your email is what will make or break a campaign, so getting it right is key. Writing the perfect email is not easy and relies on many factors. Here are a few key tips to get you started.

Subject lines

The first thing that people are going to see when they open your inbox is the much dreaded subject line. Why dreaded? Because good subject lines don’t come easily. Generally speaking you have 50 characters to tell your reader why they shouldn’t hit delete. For more tips of the trade check out Business2Government’s post discussing the art of the subject line.

Content of your email

Once you’ve grabbed the attention of your reader through the subject line, you are now faced with the task of maintaining their attention as they scan through the body of your email. When putting together the body of your email you need to keep in mind that people aren’t going to read every word. If there are any points you want to emphasise, you need to ensure that they stand out visually.

The actual message of your email will also need to flow on from the subject line of your email. What people see in the subject line sets up the expectation of what they will read in the body of the email. If the content of your email is too detached from the subject line, readers will be deterred.

Write content that promotes your product, service or promotion, but still leaves the reader with the desire to know more. The body of the email should encourage people to take the next step of visiting your website, getting in contact with your company or considering making a purchase.

Strong call to action

You’ve spent precious time constructing the right email, putting together the perfect subject line and captivating the audience with your sales pitch, so now there’s nothing worse than leaving your audience wondering where to go next.

Your call to action should be obvious, flow on from your content and be simple for the user to follow. Adding in too many steps, requiring the user to provide too many additional details and hiding your call to action among the other content in the email are all things that are going to hurt your sales.

Integrating social media into your emails

Social media is a great tool for connecting with your current and potential clients. While it can be easy to think that social media is replacing the email as a way of getting people’s attention, that is not the case. Email still has a much higher chance of connecting with the customer. But that doesn’t mean that email marketers should ignore social media altogether.

Integrating social media buttons into your email is a great way to increase customer engagement. So are share buttons, which allow your recipients to share your message, extending the reach of your campaign at no cost to you. One of the easiest ways to get shares is to embed a pre-written tweet in your email. All the reader has to do is click on the ‘share’ button and your message will go out to their network without you lifting a finger.

Just like it is important to point your email subscribers to your social media channels, your social media pages should also have links for people to sign up to your email.

Personalisation

People are more likely to engage with your email when it’s directed to them. We are all programed to respond to our names. By starting your email off with ‘Dear Customer’ or ‘Hello’ you are showing the recipient that you just don’t care. Addressing the email to the recipient by name creates a relationship that you just don’t get from a generic greeting.

In the world of marketing to government, personalisation can be tricky. Finding real, relevant names to send your email to can seem impossible, and once you have found them, they can quickly go out of date as people move from job to job.

All A-ZGovBIZ email lists come with both first and last names and are updated regularly to keep up with staff changes. Contact us today to find out how we can help get people engaged with your next campaign.